Tapp's Travels

Friday – the last day of August. Today’s walk is a local one. Along the nearest bit of coastline.  It’s only about a mile through the woods from the site but we took the car in case we only walked two miles.   At the beach we met a local by the name of Jean-Luc. A retired advocate who spends eight months in a house here and four months in the summer at Arcachon. We had to re-set the “trip computer” because we had such a long discussion in broken French about restaurants and sealing wax and cabbages and kings  (not all literally of course). We learnt a lot of useless information but got a good bit of language practice. He obviously did a lot of fishing for marlin in the Caribbean and mega-trout in Iceland. His favourite word was “EXTRAORDINAIRE”!

A couple of miles along a largely deserted beach…

… going East we got to Suscinio with it’s wetlands and castle.

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There were castles in the sand too…

In the wetland pools there were spoonbills and avocets and lots of waders and egrets.

The second half of the day’s walking took us to St Jacques via the beach. There we watched a tournament of French bowling. Like Boules but with slightly bigger rubberised bowls which are rolled at the Jack on a similar gravel pitch. In fact on the SAME pitch as Boules will be played on on Sunday!

On Saturday we picked up where we left off at Suscinio and walked to Penvins via one of two naturist beaches on the peninsula.  Static naked bodies are sort of OK.  But men parading up and down the sands – or worse playing football or badminton is not only bad taste – but potentially painful (for them).  I had to walk back again later – just to make sure (and to get the car)! The girls volleyball game was entertaining!  EXTRAORDINAIRE even!

At Penvins there is a little church on a mini-peninsula which goes by the snappy name of “Chapelle de Penvins Notre-Dame-de-la-Côte”. Completed in 1876 on the site of a much older chapel, it appears to have escaped the demolition of all things coastal that could act as a landmark during the second world war.

On this mini-peninsula all the woody plants were covered in small snails… Why do they do that?

Well, of course it’s so they can escape the high temperatures at ground level – they are aestivating in a sort of suspended animation waiting for cooler wetter weather.

Saturday sees us on the bikes again. I’m fairly sure the section eastward from Penvins to Pen Cadenic at the landward end of the coastal path is suitable for bikes.  Banastère is about the half way point.  Logic says always start in the middle of a two way journey. That way you are closer to the car when you get to an end. And coffees and picnics can be had at the halfway point without having to carry them!  Good logic.

Two flaws with the day’s plan. 1, the route is sandy and narrow in places. Very difficult for cycling (“John, you said it was OK for cycling!”). And 2, we are going to try a new restaurant for lunch miles away.

Well the newly-opened restaurant (The Pie Noire) was OK.  The local dish with pork sounded good and, to be fair, tasted great. But the pork content was minimal to put it mildly. However, the chef – sensing unhappy campers – rescued the dish with a huge chunk of – well – pork. Just a shame it hadn’t been in there to start with!

Anyway, back we went to the “halfway point” and out came the chairs, books and coffee. The final (in this direction) section of the coast path to Le Tour-du-Parc via Pen Cadenic via was (largely) bike-friendly. Fortunately for me!

That evening Greg regaled us with horror stories about snakes and Asian hornets in Goa, India. We countered with tales from the big country. Honours even – but the salties tipped the balance!

More to follow…